"The Cleaner" by Brett Battles

“The Cleaner” may be 400 plus pages long, but that’s only because it’s jam-packed with fast-paced action that would look awesome on the silver screen. You know that phrase, “Never a dull moment?” It’s a perfect way to describe this piece of spy fiction. Your main character is Jonathan Quinn, a no nonsense professional whose primary job is making potential crime scenes look like they never happened, hence the nickname “The Cleaner”. Soon after completing a job in Denver, Colorado, he becomes the center of a conspiracy where someone wants him dead and nobody will tell him who. When you have a main character who is always on the run and has a target on his back the size of a flying saucer, you can be pretty sure that there won’t be any break in the action. Sure, you might have small moments of dialogue that advance the story along, but that’s only because Jonathan Quinn’s knowledgeable ways allow him those brief reprieves. Brett Battles knew exactly what he was doing when he put together this complex story. It’s because of this novel that I became a born-again bookworm in the first place. It became the standard bearer for what I want out of fiction and that’s constant motion and instant excitement. I even went so far as to try to figure out who would play Jonathan Quinn if “The Cleaner” ever became a movie, which it most definitely could and should. It was a tossup between Jeffrey Donovan from “Burn Notice”, Michael Chiklis from “The Shield”, and Chris O’Donnell from “NCIS: Los Angeles”. Because of his combination of youth and experience, Jeffrey Donovan would probably be the best choice of those three. When you’re so excited about a book that you start making guesses as to who would play the main character on the silver screen, you know it’s something special. I’m sure there were Harry Potter fans who did the exact same thing before the first movie came out, though Daniel Radcliffe was relatively unknown at the time. And as much as I hate to admit it, there were Twilight fans who did the same as well. But unlike Twilight, I’m not going to get in a boner battle between Jonathan Quinn and the people who are trying to murder him. I’m perfectly happy with just reading the book and adding it to this blog of fast-paced novels.

　

***LYRICS OF THE DAY***

“I choose death before dishonor. I’d rather die than live down on my knees. Bury me like a soldier, with my dignity!”

-Five Finger Death Punch singing “Death Before Dishonor”-